Friday, 22 March 2013

Lady Isobel's Champion

To read an excerpt, please click on the widget above.Cover BlurbHIS LADY IN WAITINGIn her long years at the convent, waiting for her betrothed, Lady Isobel de Turenne has built the Comte d’Aveyron into a fantasy—a man who will rescue, protect and love her.…But when the comte finally returns to claim his bride, Isobel finds instead a man of contradictions—one who masks dark secrets with desire.Wary of a man’s touch but desperate to grasp her new freedom, Isobel must decide if it’s solely duty forcing the comte to marry or whether he is truly her longed-for champion.Knights of ChampagneThree Swordsmen for Three Ladies

BackgroundThe Knights of Champagne stories were inspired by the Arthurian myths and legends. Some of the earliest versions of the Arthurian stories were written in the twelfth century by an influential poet called Chrétien de Troyes.Troyes was the walled city in Champagne where Chrétien lived and worked. Pictures of Troyes may be found here.Chrétien's patron, Countess Marie of Champagne, was a princess – daughter of King Louis of France and the legendary Eleanor of Aquitaine. Countess Marie’s splendid, artistic court in Troyes rivalled Queen Eleanor’s in Poitiers.The books in the Knights of Champagne mini-series are not an attempt to rework the Arthurian tales, they are original romances set around the Troyes court. I wanted to tell stories about some of the lords and ladies who might have inspired Chrétien – and I was keen to give the ladies a more active role since Chrétien’s ladies tend to be too passive for today’s reader. Apart from a brief glimpses of Count Henry and Countess Marie, the characters are all fictional. I have used the layout of the medieval city to create my Troyes, but this series is first and foremost fictional.Here are some pictures of the Abbey at Conques in southern France. In the story, Lady Isobel spent years in a fictional convent near Conques. The first picture is the Abbey as seen from the top of the hill, the photo was taken in the morning when the early mist was beginning to melt away.

This is a sketch my husband did of a section of columns in the cloisters.

These knights can be found on one of the capitals...

And here's my husband in the guise of a pilgrim, looking towards Conques.For more about this book and mini-series, please click on one of the links in the 'Labels' section below.